by LATAM DST Taskforce 

Chile DST 2010 Fallback

In response to the recent natural disaster that impacted the country the Chilean government has announced a new end date for the DST period of 2009-2010. The new fallback information is the following:

• For the mainland and Chilean Antarctica the Daylight saving time ends: 24:00 of April 3rd, 2010 the clocks should go back to 23:00 of the same day.
• For the Easter Island and Salas y Gómez Island the Daylight saving time ends: 22:00 of April 3rd, 2010 the clocks should go back to 21:00 of the same day.

Since the new date published by the government is different from what was defined in the previous years, Windows-based computers could not correctly interpret the time that IS related to the transition to daylight saving time.

In addition to Microsoft products, other software, OS releases and hardware (phones, routers, switches and managed devices) may require updates and/or changes.

Microsoft released a hotfix to address the changes. The hotfix 981128 updates the DST end date for the “(UTC-04:00) Santiago”.

For Windows 2000 machines, the hotfix KB 981128 will only be available for customers with Extended Hotfix Agreement (EHA). Customers with no EHA can update their Windows 2000 systems via ‘Updating ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’ time zone in Windows 2000 Operating Systems’ section in this document.

Our teams at Microsoft have taken several steps to alert customers and partners to the change in Chile.

This is a guide for those that followed our first recommendation (published before the release of the hotfix KB981128) and changed the machine’s time zone to “GMT-03:00 Cayenne, Fortaleza”. It describes the steps that need to be done to prepare their machines for the end of the extended DST period.

Users that applied the hotfix KB981128 or modified the time zone “GMT-04:00 Santiago by following the KB914387 (or our blog post at Guidance for Chile DST Changes effective Saturday, March 13, 2010) are prepared for the upcoming changes and don’t need to follow this guide.

We will continue to publish advice and recommendations on the LATAM Team Blog at http://blogs.technet.com/latam and at http://www.microsoft.com/chile/cambiodehora/default.aspx.

General recommendations

• The most recent cumulative update to daylight saving time (DST) and world time zones (TZ) is now available for supported versions of the Windows Operating System via Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update. For more information about this cumulative DST and TZ update, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981128.
• Microsoft product teams follow a semi-annual DST and TZ update schedule, which follows the Windows regular schedule for publishing newly legislated DST rules and time zone updates. These annual Windows "Cumulative Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone Updates" are released in December for each calendar year; a semi-annual update will be released in August, as needed. Microsoft products that are affected may also schedule updates to accommodate some of these changes. Some times “out-of-band” hotfixes are released to address important issues.
• This update does include an update for the “GMT-04:00 Santiago” and it contains recent changes on several time zones around the world.
• This hotfix supersedes DST update KB 979306.
• Install the hotfix 981128 soon as possible.
• Please note that if you adjust the machine’s clock manually, you may have adverse effects on your environment. This procedure is not supported by Microsoft.
• Before applying the hotfix on Windows Operating Systems to reflect the change in Daylight Saving Time in Chile, be aware of potential issues that will affect Microsoft Office Outlook and Exchange Server. Read “Impacts for Outlook clients and Exchange” section for more details.
• § Contact Microsoft Support prior to any modification if you are unsure about the steps to follow in order to be prepared for the Daylight Saving Time change in Chile.

How to update Windows Operating Systems and correct Outlook calendars

Customer needs to follow the steps bellow to update the Operating Systems and Outlook calendar.

This section describes the anticipated impacts of the changes. We recommend customers to evaluate steps before apply on their environment.

Applies to:

• Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users

Note:

• If a computer does not have the latest "Cumulative Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone Updates" the name of the time zone “(GMT-03:00) Cayenne, Fortaleza” will be different. Below are the possible display names. These display names will not affect the solution since they refer to the same time zone “SA Eastern Standard Time”:
  • (GMT-03:00) Buenos Aires, Georgetown
  • (GMT-03:00) Georgetown
  • (GMT-03:00) Cayenne
• We strongly recommend that Users and Administrators apply the latest "Cumulative Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone Updates" KB981128 or follow the article 914387 (Revision 68.00 published on 03/15/2010) to update the time zone GMT-04:00 Santiago with the latest definition.
• Users and Administrators that apply the article 981128 or 914387 before the April 3^rd, 2010 can change the time zone back to GMT-04:00 Santiago at any time before the end of the DST period.
• If the machine was not updated with the KB981128 or KB914387 the time zone needs to be changed at the end of the DST period.
• There is no automatic way of changing the time zone on Windows Vista and Windows 2008, this change has to be done manually.
• Administrators will not be able to correct calendar items in a centralized way (directly on the Exchange Server).

Below is a brief description of these activities:

Changing Windows OS time zone to ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’

In order to change the computer time zone to ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’, please follow the steps below:

For Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 machines:

1. Click Start  and type:
   control timedate.cpl
2. Click ‘Change time zone…’ button:
   
3. Select ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’ and click OK:
   
   

   Note: If your machine does not have the KB979306 applied the display name can be one of the following:

   o (UTC-03:00) Buenos Aires, Georgetown

   o (UTC-03:00) Georgetown

   o (UTC-03:00) Cayenne

   The solution can be applied with any of the above display names.

For Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 machines:

1. Click Start button, select ‘Run’ and type the following command:
   control timedate.cpl
2. Click ‘Time Zone’ tab and select ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’:
    
   

   Note: If your machine does not have the KB979306 applied the display name can be one of the following:

   o (UTC-03:00) Buenos Aires, Georgetown

   o (UTC-03:00) Georgetown

   o (UTC-03:00) Cayenne

   The solution can be applied with any of the above display names

Automatically changing machine time zone to ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’ on Active Directory environments

Warning: If your domain have multiples site in different countries make sure that you only deploy this solution to machines that are located in Chile. We recommend customers to evaluate the alternative and test before apply on their production environment.

Note: this procedure is only supported in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 Operating Systems. Users running Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 will have to use the procedures specified in ‘Changing Windows OS time zone to ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’’ section.

On Active Directory environments, administrators may want to automate the change of time zones to ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’. This section explains how to deploy this time zone change via startup script. These procedures need to be executed in a Domain Controller or another machine with Admin Tools installed.

After performing all the steps below, all machines need to be restarted to automatically change the computer time zone. To avoid restarting a specific machine, please execute the procedures ‘Changing Windows PC Operating Systems time zone’ above to move this machine to ‘(GMT -04:00) Santiago’ time zone.

Use a script to change the machine time zone to (GMT -04:00) Santiago

The script below can be used to change the current time zone to (GMT -04:00) Santiago on the client computer. Then, the script writes an event to the Application log of the client computer where the script was run.

1. Click Start, click Run, type notepad, and then press ENTER.
2. Copy the following code, and then paste it into the Notepad document. The following VBS Sample is only supported in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003.
   

   On Error Resume Next strNewTimeZone = "Pacific SA Standard Time" Set objSh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") 'Get the StandardName key of the current time zone szStandardName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\StandardName") 'Enumerate the subkeys in the time zone database Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002 Set objReg = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\default:StdRegProv") szTzsKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones" objReg.EnumKey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, szTzsKeyPath, arrTzSubKeys 'Step through the time zones to find the matching Standard Name szCurrentTzKey = "<Unknown>" For Each subkey In arrTzSubKeys       strTimeZoneStandarName = ""       strTimeZoneStandarName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\" & szTzsKeyPath & "\" & subkey & "\Std")     If (strTimeZoneStandarName = szStandardName) Then         'Found matching StandardName, now store this time zone key name         szCurrentTzKey = subkey     End If Next Dim process, processid, result, strUpdateCommand Set process = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\cimv2:Win32_process") 'Add time change privilege to the process object process.Security_.Privileges.AddAsString "SeSystemTimePrivilege", True strUpdateCommand = "control.exe timedate.cpl,,/Z" & strNewTimeZone 'Launch control.exe to change time zone using the TZ key name stored in strNewTimeZone result = process.Create(strUpdateCommand, Null, Null, processid) If result <> 0 Then     objSh.LogEvent 1, "Process to change machine time zone failed to execute on this computer. Unable to change machine time zone."     wScript.Quit 0 End If 'Get the display name from previous time zone and compare with the new time zone szPrevDispName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\" & szTzsKeyPath & "\" & szCurrentTzKey & "\Display") szNewDispName = objSh.RegRead("HKLM\" & szTzsKeyPath & "\" & strNewTimeZone & "\Display") 'Write entry to the Application event log stating that the update has executed If szPrevDispName = szNewDispName Then     objSh.LogEvent 4, "Machine time zone was refreshed. The current time zone is: " & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & szNewDispName & "." Else     objSh.LogEvent 4, "Machine time zone was changed from: " & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & szPrevDispName & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & "To: " & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & szNewDispName & "." End If

3. On the File menu, click Save As.
4. Select a destination, and then type “ChangeTZ.vbs” in the File name box.
5. In the Save as type box, click All Files, and then click Save.
6. Double click in the ChangeTZ.vbs to refresh time zone information.
   Note: Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure. However, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.

Deploying time zone changes using Group Policy

1. Click Start, click Run, type notepad, and then press ENTER. 
2. Copy the following lines, and then paste it into the Notepad document.
   
   The script will test the Operating System version and apply the VBS described above on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003. For Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 the script uses the utility TZUTIL to change the time zone. The script will ignore Windows Vista and Windows 2008.
   
   

   @echo off ver |find /i "6.">nul IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO SIX cscript \\contoso.com\NETLOGON\ChangeTZ.vbs GOTO End :SIX ver |find /i "6.0">nul IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO End ver |find /i "6.1">nul IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO Win7 GOTO End :Win7 TZUTIL /G |Find /i "SA Eastern Standard Time" >nul IF %errorlevel% EQU 0 GOTO Santiago GOTO End :Santiago TZUTIL /s "Pacific SA Standard Time" :End

   
   Note: You must replace the \\contoso.com notation above with the actual DNS domain name for your Active Directory domain.
   
3. On the File menu, click Save As.
4. Select a destination, and then type ChangeTZ.cmd in the File name box.
5. In the Save as type box, click All Files, and then click Save.
6. Copy the following files to the Netlogon share folder of the domain controller that holds the PDC emulator role in the domain:
   ChangeTZ.cmd
   ChangeTZ.vbs
7. Wait until Active Directory replication occurs. Also, wait until the files and folders in the system volume (SYSVOL) shared folder replicate to domain controllers in the domain.
8. Click Start, click Run, type control admintools, and then click OK.
9. Double-click Active Directory Sites and Services.
10. Select a site where the computers in Chile are located. (Small environments may have only a site named ‘Default-First-Site-Name’).
11. Right-click this site, and then click ‘Properties’.
12. Click the Group Policy tab, click New, type DST Time Zone Change, and then press ENTER.
13. Click Edit. The Group Policy Object Editor tool starts.
14. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Windows Settings, and then click Scripts (Startup/Shutdown).
15. Double-click Startup, and then click Add.
16. In the Script Name box, type the universal naming convention (UNC) path of the ChangeTZ.cmd file that is located in the Netlogon share. For example, type:
    \\contoso.com\NETLOGON\ChangeTZ.cmd
    
17. Click OK two times.

Impacts for Outlook clients and Exchange

Any calendar item created during the extended DST period (03/14/2010 and 04/03/2010) and scheduled to any date during the next DST period will show with one hour off. We are going to call this difference “Delta Period”.

The inconvenience experienced by Outlook client users happens for all appointments during the delta period that were created before the administrators update the DST dates on the operating system.

Those appointments will be off 1 hour. This may happen for both recurring and single-instance appointments.

The appointments created after the DST dates have been updated on the operating system will have the correct time.

Why do we experience this behavior?

To answer this question, we need to understand how Outlook schedule meetings and appointments:

Three factors affect the scheduling of a meeting and appointment in Outlook:

• The computer's clock setting (time).
• The computer's local time zone setting.
• The computer's daylight saving time adjustment setting.

Outlook time stamps the message request with the Greenwich Mean Time for the meeting. Outlook calculates Greenwich Mean Time by using the computer's clock time, plus or minus the local time zone adjustment, minus (depending upon the time of year) the daylight-saving time adjustment.

As soon as Outlook receives the meeting request it will calculate the meeting time for the recipient and schedule it on the calendar. If any of the three factors listed earlier are incorrect at that time, the meeting time will be incorrect. You cannot correct the time after the fact by correcting the factor in error; you must open the meeting request and manually correct the scheduled time.

Adjusting Outlook calendars for users in Chile after move the machines back to '(GMT -04:00) Santiago’

After you move to the time zone '(GMT -04:00) Santiago", only Outlook calendar items created during the extended DST period (between 03/14/2010 and 04/03/2010) and scheduled for the next DST period (between the second Saturday of October of 2010 and the second Saturday of March of 2011) will be displayed with 1 hour off.

Options to correct your Outlook calendar in this scenario:

• Manually modify each appointment on the affected period (between the second Saturday of October of 2010 and the second Saturday of March of 2011) after the operating system time zone has been changed. Instructions on the section “How to manually modify Outlook Calendar items”
  
  - or -
  
• Customers may also opt to use the "Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool version 3.0" on the mode Permanent Time Zone Move to correct the Outlook calendar items. This procedure is explained below.

Special note: We recommend you to print your calendar before any changes are made, and then review the calendar items to make sure these items appear at the correct times. You can use this printed copy of the calendar items to verify that Outlook has been updated successfully.

Step by step procedure to use “Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool version 3.0” after a time zone move

The following describes the steps to be followed by end-users performing a time zone move:

1. The steps below can be followed for users who changed their time zone configuration to “(GMT -04:00) Santiago”.
2. Download and run the installation package from:
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=%20E343A233-B9C8-4652-9DD8-AE0F1AF62568&displaylang=en
3. Go to Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office Outlook Tools, Time Zone Data Update Tool and Select "Permanent Time Zone Move Mode".
4. Properly select “(GMT -03:00) Cayenne, Fortaleza” from the “Original Time Zone:” drop down, and “(GMT -04:00) Santiago” for the “New Time Zone:” drop down and click OK.
    
   Note: As with standard time zone updates, the tool defaults to updating affected items on your Calendar and in your Reminders folder.  If you would like to update additional items (e.g. items in additional Calendars or a PST), you can do so by clicking the ‘Custom…’ button and manually selecting the target folder.
5. The tool will inspect your mailbox and will report how many appointments will be moved:
    
   If you click “Details” the appointment list will appear and you will be able to select all (default) or some of the appointments. In a normal situation you will move all the appointments to the new time zone. Click “OK” in the following dialog to proceed moving the appointments. A log file “Outlook Time Zone Update .log” will be generated in the %temp% directory.
6. Click "OK" to correct the calendar items listed.
7. After moving Click “OK” again to close the tool.
8. Review your calendar items from the second Saturday of October of 2010 and the second Saturday of March of 2011 and verify if they were correctly updated.

How to manually modify Outlook Calendar items:

After you move from another time zone to '(GMT -04:00) Santiago", your calendar items will be one hour off between the second Saturday of October of 2010 and the second Saturday of March of 2011 (next DST period).

A simpler alternative to correct the Outlook Calendar items is by adjusting the appointments manually. To do so, please proceed as follows:

1. Start Outlook, and then open the Outlook calendar.
2. Manually move each meeting that you organized so that they occur at the correct time.
3. Send an update for each meeting that you moved to the meeting attendees. This action causes the calendar for each attendee to display the correct time for the meeting.
4. Manually move each single-instance appointment.
5. Manually move all recurring appointments that occur in the extended DST period.

Recommendations to minimize the impacts on Outlook/Exchange:

• Simulate the changes on a lab environment, so you know what will happen and what to expect.
• Work in conjunction with the operating system team to update the DST dates as soon as possible to minimize the chance of users creating new appointments during the delta period before the operating system DST dates get updated.
• Before doing any change on the DST information, request the users to print their schedule so they have a reference to follow in order to manually update the appointments later if needed.
• Take a full online backup of your Exchange Servers in case you decide to use the Exchange Calendar Update Tool.
• For the meetings with multiple attendees only the meeting requestor should update the time and send the update to the others.
• Include the time of the meeting in the e-mail request so that invitees can double check the correct meeting time (such as, "Project brainstorming - 11:00 A.M. Santiago Time").
• Exercise caution with the appointments and meetings in the extended DST period. When in doubt, verify the correct time with the organizer.

References:

941018 How to address daylight saving time by using the Exchange Calendar Update Tool

931667 How to address time zone changes by using the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook

943390 Some Outlook calendar items are rebased incorrectly when you use the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool to adjust for daylight saving time changes in certain time zones

934001 A troubleshooting guide to the Exchange Calendar Update Tool (Msextmz.exe)